Image MIME Reference
PBM
Portable Bitmap
image/x-portable-bitmap
VS
Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias)
image/x-tga
TGA
A complete technical comparison of Portable Bitmap and Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias) — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.
Equal browser support
Feature Support
| Feature | PBM | TGA |
|---|---|---|
| Transparency (Alpha) | ✕ No | Yes |
| Animation Support | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| Progressive Loading | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| HDR Support | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| EXIF Metadata | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| ICC Color Profile | ✕ No | ✕ No |
Portable Bitmap
image/x-portable-bitmap
Extension
.pbm
Container
Netpbm
Compression
Uncompressed
Algorithm
None
Color Depth
1-bit (Monochrome)
Developed by
Jef Poskanzer (Netpbm Project)
Released
1988
Magic Bytes
50 31 (ASCII) or 50 34 (Binary)
Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias)
image/x-tga
Extension
.tga.icb.vda.vst
Container
Truevision TGA Footer/Header
Compression
Uncompressed / Run-Length Encoding (RLE)
Algorithm
NoneRLE
Color Depth
8-bit (Grayscale or Indexed), 16-bit (High Color), 24-bit (True Color), 32-bit (True Color with Alpha Channel)
Developed by
Truevision Inc.
Released
1984
Magic Bytes
54 52 55 45 56 49 53 49 4F 4E 2D 58 46 49 4C 45 2E 00 (At the end of the file)
Browser Support Comparison
| Browser | PBM | TGA |
|---|---|---|
Chrome
|
✕ | ✕ |
Firefox
|
✕ | ✕ |
Safari
|
✕ | ✕ |
Edge
|
✕ | ✕ |
IE (Legacy)
|
✕ | ✕ |
PBM
PBM Strengths
- Absolute structural simplicity allows parsers to be written from scratch with just a few lines of code
- ASCII encoding allows manual editing and debugging directly within a standard text editor
- Serves as a flawless, lossless intermediary for 1-bit raster data like scanned documents or barcodes
Limitations
- Strictly limited to 1-bit monochrome images; cannot natively display shades of gray or color
- Lack of compression results in extremely large file sizes, particularly when using the ASCII 'P1' encoding
- No support for alpha transparency or modern metadata standards like EXIF
TGA
TGA Strengths
- Incredibly simple byte layout allows developers to write custom loaders and exporters in a few dozen lines of code, bypassing the need for heavy external libraries
- Native support for 8-bit alpha channels ensures flawless transparency masking for real-time 3D rendering
- Fast, predictable RLE decoding requires almost no CPU overhead compared to DEFLATE (PNG) or DCT (JPEG)
Limitations
- RLE compression is relatively weak by modern standards, resulting in large file sizes
- Lacks a standard magic byte header at the beginning of the file, making file-sniffing unreliable for older v1.0 files
- Zero support in web browsers; must be converted to PNG or WebP for web delivery
When to choose which format
PBM
Use PBM when…
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Pre-processing
- Unix/Linux Command-Line Image Pipelines
- Academic Image Processing Teaching
TGA
Use TGA when…
- Video Game 3D Textures and Materials
- 3D Rendering and Animation Sequences
- Legacy Video Production Workflows